Canada

PCQ poses its vision of anew Quebec

The Parti Communiste du Quebec, in a
submission to the Commission on Quebec’s
political and constitutional future, has re-
leased its suggestions on what a democratic,
independent state should look like.

It also aimed some sharp criticism at the
commission, arguing that it is hardly repre-
sentative of the Quebec population, lacking
members from the First Nations, women’s
organizations, youth, the anglophone com-
munity or Quebec’s ethnic groups.

The commission is in fact composed of
ten Liberal members of the National As-
sembly, seven from the Parti Quebecois, two
from the Equality Party, MPs, an equal num-
ber of official business and labour repre-
sentatives, someone each from education,
the cultural community, and the co-opera-
tive movement as well as two chairs. The
chairs are Michel Belanger, former head of
the National Bank of Canada, and Jean
Campeau, chairman of Domtar Inc.

That, suggested the party, “doesn’t en-
courage us to believe that the commission
will be able to formulate recommendations
that respond to the needs and interests of all
of the population.”

Municipalities need

Central to the PCQ’s proposal is the idea
that if Quebec is a state committed to social
justice and democratic principles, the pro-
cess involved in defining the independence
project will have to reflect that.

“The population will no longer be satis-
fied with leaving the elaboration of a politi-
cal and constitutional project in the hands of
a small group of experts or politicians.” The
PCQ argues that forms will have to be found
to facilitate the participation of as many
popular organizations as possible in the dis-
cussion and the planning of a sovereign
Quebec. :

The submission sketches Communist
Party views on a wide range of questions. In
the international arena, “the Quebec of to-
morrow must play an active international
role promoting the resolution of conflicts
through negotiation ....It must participate
actively in the search for solutions to en-
vironmental problems and promote sustain-
able economic development.”

It calls for Quebec to participate in the
strengthening of intemational bodies such as
the UN as the means to tackle genuinely
global problems.

financial autonomy

The Meech Lake Accord went down to
a well-deserved defeat. What will take its
place? And who will make the decisions?

It’s obvious that some new relationship
with Quebec is in the cards. The
aboriginal peoples demand, with
justification, that their rights as
self-goveming nations be recognized in
any new constitution. What about
municipalities? Shouldn’t they also be
recognized and given new rights in
revamped constitution? :

Municipalities, which are the level of
government closest to the people, find
themselves in an increasingly difficult
position today, because:

(a) They are created by and are in fact

only major tax reserved for municipalities
is the property tax, most of which falls on
homeowners. Homes are not a source of
income; they are not revenue generating.
They should be taxed only for the services
they get directly such as water, sewers,
police and fire protection. They should not
be taxed to raise revenues for general
purposes.

(e) Property taxes are based on
assessment rolls prepared by a
provincially appointed assessment body.
Its methods are such that big commercial
and industrial properties are invariably
assessed at far below market value. The
result is that they don’t pay their fair share
of taxes and the difference is made up by

creatures of the provinces. They have no
endemic rights of their own. Their powers
and responsibilities are determined by
provincial governments. What the
provincial government giveth it can also
taketh away.

(b) A whole number of our larger urban
municipalities, population wise, are bigger
than some of our provinces.

(c) The federal and provincial
governments have kept for themselves all
the most lucrative forms of taxation —
income tax, tariffs, sales taxes, and so on.

(d) Municipalities have only two major
sources of revenue, provincial grants and
property taxes.

Provincial grants leave the
municipalities dependent on the provincial
government, and politics, favouritism and
patronage play a big role in which
municipalities get what they want. The

2 ¢ Pacific Tribune, November 19, 1990

| Harry
| Rankin

higher taxes on homes. Premier Bill
‘Vander Zalm’s Fantasy Gardens property,
for example, was assessed at $4.7 million
but sold at a price in excess of $15 million.

This is the unfair situation
municipalities find themselves in. What is
the solution? Now that we’re revamping.
our Constitution, one step should be to
officially recognize municipalities as a
“distinct” (that seems to be the buzzword
these days) level of government and to
give them a measure of autonomy and
sources of revenue corresponding to their
responsibilities.

This would give us a far greater right to
Tun our own affairs and put power back
where it belongs — in the hands of the
people. What this also means is that when
the next constitution conference takes
place, municipalities as well as the
aboriginal peoples should be represented.

On internal democracy, the call is for the

” recognition of the right of the First Nations

in Quebec to self-determination, ds well as
democratic rights for the anglophone min-
ority and the ethnic communities.

The party favours an enlarged Charter of
Rights to guarantee sexual equality, econ-
omic and trade union rights, minus anything
resembling a notwithstanding clause. It
favours proportional representation in an
electoral law.

An assault on poverty, full employment,
and the development of regions to meet the
needs of the populations who live there,
would be features of a democratic, inde-
pendent Quebec, the PCQ submission says.
New forms of democratized decision-
making should also be a priority, it argues.

“A new constitutional and political
definition of Quebec must avoid measures
that will finally lead to a heightened depend-
ence on the politics and narrow visions of
the American, Canadian, Quebec, or other
States’ transnationals.”

The submission notes how the PCQ has
long backed Quebec’s right to self-deter-
mination, but previously thought this could

be realized in the context of the Canadian
State.

However, “the debate around the Meech
Lake accord demonstrated to us it was nO
longer possible to realistically envisage 4
recognition of our right to self-determina-
tion and national equality on the part of
English Canada.”

Party leader Marianne Roy, writing in 2
recent issue of l’Alternative, noted that the
commission, among other things, is “split”
into an “independantiste” wing, typified by
the PQ and Lucien Bouchard, and a sort of
renewed federalism faction.

She argues this might prepare the ground
for Premier Robert Bourassa to borrow a bit
from both positions and then present himself
as the unifier of the nation.

It seems however that whether Bourassa
or Bouchard emerge as the “father” of anew
Quebec, neither is much interested in a pro-
ject that puts deeper democracy and pro-
gressive reform on the front bummer.

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